The attorney for Blue Hill’s “Farmer Brown” filed a motion on December 27 for an extension of time to file an answer to the complaint filed in Superior Court by the Maine Attorney General’s office on behalf of the Maine Department of Agriculture in early November.

In an action that has generated nationwide attention, the state has cited Dan Brown of Gravelwood Farm for violations of state law in the sale of milk from his one cow.

David Cox, representing Brown, said in a December 30 e-mail to The Weekly Packet, “We would like to give the government the opportunity to continue to engage in settlement discussions.”

It had been previously reported in the December 22/29 issue of The Weekly Packet that Cox said, “settlement discussions have fallen through.”

A spokesperson in the court clerk’s office said that there is a 21-day waiting period for the state’s attorney to respond to the motion for a time extension before the judge rules on it.